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Canada is gearing up to launch nation-building projects that jumpstart economic development and affirm Canadian sovereignty. But as we recently shared in our op-ed, expediting approvals for a handful of traditional infrastructure projects doesn’t...

Question put to Google AI Mode: 10 August 2025 Who is the John Donovan connected with Shell?

John Donovan is primarily known for his long-standing conflict with Shell, which began with a business dispute between his marketing promotions company, Don Marketing, and Shell. Don Marketing, co-founded by John and his father Alfred, created successful promotions for Shell in the 1980s. However, this relationship ended in the early 1990s due to a dispute over intellectual property and alleged actions of an unscrupulous Shell executive.

This conflict has continued for decades, involving multiple court cases and interventions by Shell. John Donovan and his late father became vocal critics, running websites like royaldutchshellplc.com and others that are highly critical of Shell.

Key aspects of John Donovan’s association with Shell:

Promotional Games Company Founder: John Donovan co-founded Don Marketing, a company that designed and supplied promotional games used by Shell and other major UK petrol brands.

Critic and Whistleblower: Donovan has become a prominent figure in discussions about corporate accountability in the oil industry, known for attracting leaks from within Shell and highlighting issues related to environmental concerns, corporate governance, and safety protocols.

Owner of Critical Websites: He operates several websites focused on Shell, such as royaldutchshellplc.com, where he publishes information and allegations against the company.

Author: He is the author of the book “John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare”. He has also written about Shell’s history in books like “Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell”.

Advocate for Corporate Responsibility: Donovan’s websites have been recognized for their watchdog function on Shell’s activities and have been used by various NGOs and organizations for their campaigns related to Shell, according to RoyalDutchShellPlc.com.

Donovan’s actions have reportedly cost Shell billions of dollars and garnered recognition from officials and investigators, including those in the Kremlin and the US, who have used information from his websites. Shell, while acknowledging interactions with Donovan, generally refrains from commenting on the specifics of his allegations and disputes much of the information he presents.

AI responses may include mistakes.

Who is the John Donovan connected with Shell? was first posted on August 10, 2025 at 5:42 pm.
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Headline News:

• “Climate Solutions That Can Spread Fast? Scientists Outline A Strategy To Tip The System” • An international research group has a new method to identify “positive tipping points,” when small shifts in behaviour, technology or policy could lead to sweeping, self-sustaining climate progress. Their proposed plan is described in Sustainability Science. [Euronews]

Helping hand (Neil Thomas, Unsplash)

• “High Temperatures To Affect Nuclear Power Production In South West France” • High water temperatures are expected to affect electricity production on the Garonne river, from August 12, particularly at the 2.6-GW Golfech nuclear plant, nuclear operator EDF said in a notice. The high temperatures are also expected to affect other plants. [MSN]
• “BYD EV Struck By Lightning Holds Up Fine ” • A BYD electric car was recently struck by lightning, three times, while it was in motion. There was driver in the car at the time. The good news is that the driver and the car were fine, with only minimal damage. A mechanic inspected the battery, motor, and electronic contols and found nothing wrong. [CleanTechnica]
• “New Study Shows How Climate Change Is Driving Wildfire Season To Start Earlier In California” • Fire season is expanding in California, with an earlier start to wildfire activity in most of the state. In parts of the northern mountains, the season is now starting more than 10 weeks earlier than it did in the 1990s, a study shows. [PBS]
• “Tesla Dissolves Its Dojo Supercomputer Team Amid A Talent Exodus” • Tesla is dissolving the team that was developing its Dojo supercomputer, according to Bloomberg. The change marks a notable shift away from using in-house technology to train the AI models powering Tesla’s self-driving features and its Optimus humanoid robot. [MSN]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

The following are locations for selected Prisoners’ Justice Day events happening in Ontario on Sunday, August 10th: Toronto: Grange Park at 1:00 pm ETKingston: Grounds...

The post Prisoners’ Justice Day at 50: A reading list first appeared on Spring.

Headline News:

• “‘Will European Cities Become Unlivable?” • Due to the “heat island” effect, cities are especially affected by heat. Cities can be 10°C to 15°C (18°F to 27°F) hotter than rural areas around them during summer. There are green solutions, and many cities are adapting, but if CO₂ emissions are not reduced to zero, experts warn cities could become unlivable. [Euronews]

Montmartre, Paris (Bastien Nvs, Unsplash)

• “Administration Rescinds Biden Approval of 1,000 MW Wind Farm In Idaho” • The Trump administration rescinded approvals for a proposed 1,000 MW wind energy facility in southern Idaho that had been the object of controversy due to its proximity to a site where Japanese Americans were interned in government camps during World War II. [The Well News]
• “Leapmotor Gets Its Own Ocean Vessel For Vehicle Shipments” • Leapmotor is really excelling and deserves more of a nod. It is a Chinese EV brand that is seeing soaring overseas sales, especially in Europe. Now it has its own ship, Grande Tianjin, leased by Grimaldi Group, to deliver cars. It’s new EV, B10, has a starting price of 99,800 yuan ($13,900). [CleanTechnica]
• “Over 50 Million People On Alert For Dangerous Heat In The Southwest” • Extreme heat warnings remain in effect for parts of the desert Southwest. Phoenix has already seen a high of 118°F. This not only was the hottest temperature ever recorded in the month of August, it is also tied for the ninth-hottest day all time since records began in 1895. [ABC News]
• “A Moment Of Opportunity To Embrace Renewables Is Smart Economics” • Smart economics is the driving factor for global renewable adoption. That is the argument behind a speech titled “A Moment of Opportunity” by UN Secretary General António Guterres. He described how “we are on the cusp of a new era” of powering our lives. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

A White Paper by the Central California Environmental Justice Network

Scott talks with organizer and comrade Patrick Young (@patrickjyoung.bsky.social) about the state of resistance eight months into the Trump Administration. They get into the act of disobedience that the Texas…

As Texas Republicans continue attempting to force through a partisan redistricting plan at President Trump’s behest, Public Citizen co-presidents Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert issued the following statement on the current state of affairs:

“Donald Trump’s popularity is plummeting and Americans overwhelmingly reject his policy agenda — which so far includes stripping healthcare from 17 million Americans, slashing taxes on the super rich, conducting heartless and cruel mass deportations, and cutting off investments in renewable energy.

“That is the context for Trump’s unprecedented demand that Texas impose a hyper-partisan, out-of-cycle redistricting gerrymander. There’s nothing complicated about this: Trump fears that voters will penalize him and his party in the next election, so he’s trying to rig the rules.

“The Trump demand for an extreme gerrymander in Texas — now embraced by Texas Republicans — will deprive Texas voters of fair representation, as politicians pick their voters rather than the other way around. It will have a particularly unfair impact on voters of color, as districts with majority or large populations of voters of color are broken up. And, of course, the entire purpose of the gerrymander is to rig results to maintain Republican control of Congress when most observers expect they would otherwise lose it.

“In simple terms, the Trump gerrymander is authoritarian and anti-democratic to its core.

“Texas is not the only state gerrymander Trump aims to impose, with the administration openly demanding other Republican-controlled states follow suit, no matter what state Republicans may want.

“Public Citizen has long advocated for independent commissions to draw fair Congressional district lines. That’s a nonpartisan means to overcome the severe problems of racial and partisan gerrymanders.

“However, Trump’s actions are leaving many Democratic-controlled states with no choice but to abandon independent commissions or systems designed to advance intra-state balance and neutrality. These states cannot be asked — nor should they be asked — to ignore the national context of their decisions. If Republican-controlled states engage in extreme gerrymanders, the Democratic-controlled states will have little choice but to follow suit.

“This is a needless moment of national crisis and further polarization, the responsibility for which lies completely and totally with Donald Trump. Right now, Texas should pull back from its efforts and other states should stand down. With that scenario unlikely, Congress should adopt a stand-still measure and block out-of-cycle redistricting except those ordered by a court to protect civil rights and advance fairness.

“Ultimately, we need a national solution of independent commissions in every state to draw fair maps — in every state. That would level the playing field nationally —and protect the interest of voters in every state. This solution would be in place right now if Republicans had not blocked passage of the Freedom to Vote Act in 2021. And it’s the solution that will finally be put in place when Congress passes an updated version of the Freedom to Vote Act.”

The state of Oklahoma recently passed the Food is Medicine Act (OK SB806), landmark legislation that recognizes the role of nutrition in preventing and managing chronic disease. Anti-hunger and public health advocates hope the new law will lay the groundwork for integrating fresh, locally grown food into clinical care by supporting produce prescription programs and encouraging healthcare payers to reimburse for food-as-medicine interventions.

FreshRx Oklahoma, a Tulsa-based nonprofit food prescription program, is already showing how this model can work in practice. Founded and led by Erin Martin, the organization works to deliver measurable health outcomes through their produce prescription program. They strive to help individuals managing chronic conditions like diabetes reduce A1C numbers, preserve the ability to work and live fully, and keep families and communities thriving. 

“If we say we care about equity,” Martin asks, “why would we give the communities with the worst outcomes the cheapest food?”

The program offers significant healthcare cost-savings, Martin says. “We’ve probably saved the state of Oklahoma over US$5 million,” she tells Food Tank, “while spending just a fifth of the typical cost to treat someone with chronic illness.” That’s important when the U.S. is experiencing what Martin calls a “financial crisis in healthcare.”

FreshRx creates trust by hiring from the community, including program graduates, and offering high-quality, locally grown food. In addition to receiving ingredients, participants are invited to take part in cooking demos and educational opportunities that are designed to be hands-on and culturally relevant. Martin explains that the participants are supported along their journey. 

Engagement rates have jumped from 15 percent to over 85 percent, she tells Food Tank. People are showing up, cooking, sharing, and  encouraging each other. “Food is our Trojan horse,” Martin tells Food Tank. “It brings people in. But what we’re really doing is healing.”

But systemic challenges remain. Funding can be inconsistent and insurers are sometimes hesitant to support the program, Martin explains.  But that’s beginning to change as organizations like FreshRx Oklahoma prove that Food is Medicine initiatives yield tangible results. 

With the passing of the new Food is Medicine Act, FreshRx Oklahoma is hopeful that more states will follow suit. “Having the legislative backing, having the hard conversations will eventually get [us] over that hill,” Martin tells Food Tank. From here, “we can get additional metrics [and] as that ramps up, we’re going to see more and more insurers adopt this.”

Listen to the full conversation with Erin Martin on “Food Talk with Dani Neirenberg” to hear more about the work of FreshRx Oklahoma, how to make the case for Food is Medicine to policymakers, and the benefits these programs offer to farmers.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Negley Stockman, Unsplash

The post Rooted in Health: How FreshRx Oklahoma Is Redefining Healthcare through Food and Community appeared first on Food Tank.

Notes from the Meeting on Nature Markets in Guarema, Brazil

By Valentina Figuera Martínez and Andrea Echeverri, Global Forest Coalition

8/8/2025

 

Letícia Tura, the executive director of the Brazilian non-profit organization FASE, speaks with lucidity and nuance about false solutions to climate change. Before taking the podium at the Rosa Luxemburg Auditorium at the Florestán Fernándes School of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), she listens attentively to colleagues from more than 40 organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean. She takes notes in a small notebook with a picture of a jaguar on the front, its menacing eyes a reminder of the power of the jungle.

With a critical take on today’s socio-environmental crisis, Letícia addresses the issue of false solutions in official climate change negotiations and provides a frank assessment of the structural causes of biodiversity loss, deforestation, and forest degradation.

Tura’s talk was part of the Meeting on Nature Markets, organized by GRAIN and the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC)/Vía Campesina, with social movements and organizations from around 20 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. It was held in Guararema, not far from the Brazilian capital city, from July 21 to 24, 2025. 

Ahead of the upcoming Climate Change Conference (COP 30) and People’s Summit in Belém this November, it was a valuable opportunity to build common understandings about the impacts of projects aimed at the financialization of nature, which destroy thousands of acres of tropical forests and communities across the region.

Participants included civil society groups FASE of Brazil (Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional) and Centro de Estudios Heñói of Paraguay, both of which are members of the Global Forest Coalition, a network for rights-based forest protection that turns 25 this year. At the meeting, they offered critiques of mechanisms like REDD+, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), biodiversity markets, and carbon markets, the latter of which includes what’s known as carbon farming. GFC members and campaigners spoke up to expand on the critical assessment of schemes for the financialization of nature and defined strategies for territorial defense throughout the region.

Organizations and social movement representatives at the opening session of the Meeting on Nature Markets. Photo: Andrey Martínez, CLOC/La Vía Campesina.

“The climate change debate isn’t just technical; it’s also political: it has to do with the class struggle, gender injustices, and disputes over the development model. The logic behind the debate can’t just be about emissions reductions and market ‘solutions.’ This debate is political, it’s about the type of society we want to build, and it’s in conflict with the business sector that tries to impose its vision of the world on us,” Tura said.

The region of Latin America and the Caribbean has the highest concentration of carbon market projects in the world, partly due to the region’s rich ecosystems, such as the Amazon, the Gran Chaco, and the Mata Atlántica (Brazil’s Atlantic Forest), biomes that are coveted by those seeking to implement false climate solutions. Such projects typically involve greenwashing, fraud, land grabbing, rights violations, and deforestation; however, they are frequently the focus of negotiations on climate and biodiversity finance.

In 2024, in the Brazilian Amazon alone, more than half of the carbon credit projects—which occupy a total of 78,000 square miles—overlapped public lands. Among the companies that bought these carbon credits to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions are Netflix, Air France, Delta Air Lines, Airbnb, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Spotify, and Boeing. 

In addition to rigorous critiques of the most well-known false climate solutions in the region, the meeting also raised the alarm about other carbon credit schemes associated with monoculture tree plantations and so-called carbon farming. According to a report by GRAIN, carbon markets based on afforestation and reforestation have gobbled up 9 million hectares across the Global South, and have given a boost to the territorial expansion of commercial reforestation companies, whose impacts have been widely denounced.

Carbon farming is based on the false premise that carbon can be accumulated in soils through agricultural practices such as zero tillage (no plowing) or pasture rotation and new varieties with deep roots, which are linked to industrial livestock farming. Corporations like the meat giant Minerva, which, through its Renove program, promotes “carbon neutral meat” and also sells credits, have been denounced for their ties to deforestation and land grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon.

A case study of Hacienda San José in Colombia published by GFC demonstrated the repercussions for the Indigenous Sikuani community—and particularly women—of a project that is in the process of obtaining carbon credits and aims to produce 450,000 cattle in a way that is certified “carbon negative.”

The reality is changing, and organizations and social movements are adapting their strategies for the defense and care of the territories and communities. 

“These days, we see that the debate isn’t just about carbon markets in a strict sense,” Tura said. “Rather, there are different forms of appropriation of forests and nature’s common goods, such as the datafication of agriculture and the digitalization of territories. However, we see powerful new forms of resistance. Women play a key role; they’re on the front lines of resistance. We’ve heard some upsetting stories at the meeting, but also tales of resistance in the face of market-based projects and reproduction of the communitarian societies that we want to build. Agroecology, the management of nature’s common goods, community funds, saving and exchanging seeds—these are some of the forms of living resistance in our region.” 

Letícia Tura of FASE at the Meeting on Nature and Markets in Guararema, Brazil. Photo: Valentina Figuera Martínez.

Omar Yampey, the executive director of Centro de Estudios Heñói, leads struggles against big agribusiness and monocultures in Paraguay. A careful and eloquent speaker, he is an expert on the forestry business that has caused social and environmental harm in that country at the hands of companies like Forestal San Pedro and Forestal Apepu, which together control over 17,000 hectares of monoculture eucalyptus plantations in Paraguay. They are both part of Fondo Arbaro, a Green Climate Fund program.

Omar Yampey of Centro de Estudios Heñói. Photo: Mombú Audiovisual.

“False solutions contain elements of classical forms of extractivism and agribusiness. The Paraguayan government has a policy of widespread exploitation of eucalyptus monocultures. In northern Paraguay, the indigenous communities are asking for our help to understand the murky proposals on carbon markets. It’s not a moral issue in the sense of judging communities that do accept carbon markets, but rather, it’s a political issue. We have to position ourselves in response to this scenario,” Omar said.

When the Global North justifies its destruction, the perpetrators won’t be able to claim that the peoples of the South stayed silent. They won’t think we went down without a fight. We’re speaking out, resisting, and enduring, with our real solutions. Let’s keep it that way.

 

 

Translated from the Spanish by Megan Morrissey.

The post The struggle to halt climate change is political, not just technical appeared first on Global Forest Coalition.

After dabbling in green PR and selling off assets, Shell’s production tanks while Exxon and Chevron pump away. BlackRock yawns.

Oh, Shell. The self-proclaimed champion of “Powering Progress.” The oil giant that flirted with an “energy transition” just long enough to slap wind turbines on its annual report before sprinting right back to its first love: fossil fuels. And yet—somehow—it’s producing less of them than at any point in the last two decades.

Let’s set the stage. In the great oil-and-gas Olympics of Q2, Exxon and Chevron took home gold medals in pure, unapologetic extraction. Exxon pumped 4.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, fuelled by Guyana’s deepwater gushers and a little something called the Pioneer Natural Resources acquisition. Chevron cranked out 3.4 million barrels per day, with Kazakhstan, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Permian all coughing up crude like it’s still 1973.

Both saw earnings drop—Exxon’s $7.1 billion was down 15% year-over-year, Chevron’s $2.5 billion nearly halved—but they barely flinched. This is Big Oil. Prices go down? Wait a bit. They’ll be back.

And then there’s Shell.

Shell managed just 2.65 million barrels a day in Q2, a 4.2% drop from last year and—drumroll—the lowest production since the early 2000s. The company blames asset sales and those much-hyped investments in alternative energy sources that, shockingly, didn’t magically replace billions in oil profits. Shell’s experiment in “being less evil” now looks about as effective as a paper umbrella in a hurricane.

Yes, they still beat analysts’ profit forecasts—because Shell is still shovelling billions back to shareholders instead of investing in actual transformation—but operationally? Exxon and Chevron are lapping them.

Reuters’ Ron Bousso points out that European supermajors like BP and Shell need to “catch up” with their American peers in production and earnings. Translation: stop pretending to be green, pump more oil, and maybe—just maybe—BlackRock will pat you on the head again.

Forecasters still predict peak oil and gas demand before the decade is out, but Shell seems ready to gamble that the peak will be postponed long enough to squeeze a few more billion out of what’s left. Because when your green pivot fails, why not go all-in on the thing that’s killing the planet?

Until then, Shell’s strategy is clear:

• Cut costs.

• Please shareholders with buybacks and dividends.

• Avoid mentioning that output is in freefall.

• Hope no one notices the “energy transition” was just a marketing exercise.

And trust us—BlackRock, one of Shell’s biggest investors, isn’t losing sleep. For them, a “transition” is just a bridge back to the oilfields.

 

DISCLAIMER: This article is a work of commentary and satire based entirely on publicly available, verifiable information from credible news outlets and official company statements. It is intended for the purpose of criticism, parody, and public interest discussion.

Shell’s Energy “Transition” Hits a 20-Year Low in Oil Output – And Wall Street Still Claps was first posted on August 8, 2025 at 4:28 pm.
©2018 "Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at john@shellnews.net

This February news sites around the world shared footage of a rarely seen black seadevil anglerfish who took the internet by storm. The bizarre deep-sea animals, who have a bioluminescent “fishing lure” used to draw prey toward their fang-like teeth, normally live in complete darkness at depths of up to 4,900 feet below sea level. When this one was spotted near the Canary Islands, people quickly started speculating about why and how the creature had made such an extreme vertical ascent. Some got sentimental and poetic about the fish’s experience, making remarks about how the fish finally got to see other lights — the sun — besides its own before its demise.

 

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And yes, the fish died not long after.

Beyond the bizarre phenomenon, the way people reacted to and interpreted the fish’s unusual behavior is worth unpacking, because what seemed like an effort to empathize with the fish turned instead into something more troubling: anthropomorphism, a fancy term for attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities.

The case of the black seadevil anglerfish illustrates the problem. The species’ name is a poetic allusion to notions of demons and fishermen — two very human concepts we impose on a fish that knows neither. Their natural habitat is the twilight zone of the deep ocean, where sunlight doesn’t reach. Creatures inhabiting this zone have developed fascinating ways to adapt to extreme conditions: high pressures, frigid temperatures, and never-ending darkness.

The wayward seadevil had no reason to swim so close to the surface as long as it was doing fine in its habitat, except that it probably wasn’t. Some experts speculated that it might have eaten a smaller fish with a gas-filled swim bladder (which could force the seadevil to go upward uncontrollably), while others thought it was either sick, stressed, injured, or escaping a predator.

Those expert theories are plausible, so why did so many of us instead romanticize the fish’s unusual behavior? People got so emotional over the fish’s fate that they made poems, comics, and even artworks that proposed the fish wished to see the sun, wanted to be understood, or was on a sort of philosophical journey to find something bigger than its own life.

While that speaks volume about our capacity to try to sympathize with other beings, it raises important questions: Is it true? Is it accurate? And more importantly, is it necessary? This was my genuine concern when scrolling through all the comments and contents regarding the black seadevil.

Don’t get me wrong: I was an animal lover before I became a science journalist, so I always have a soft spot for animals. Still, I know that anthropomorphizing a fish found far from its home range is not a good idea. “That fish was probably dying” was my first thought when I saw the footage.

Instead of anthropomorphizing, we should instead try to understand animals based on how they experience the world with their own senses. Empathy should be the goal. Instead of making assumptions like, “If it were me, I would have felt uncomfortable too,” we should try asking a different question: “I wonder how it feels for them?”

This fundamental framework is the central theme of Ed Yong’s book An Immense World. Through its pages Yong tries to explain the philosophical concept of Umwelt, which posits that animals experience the world differently from us because they rely on different and often enhanced senses to navigate their surroundings.

In other words, sensory stimuli that might feel normal to us — like bright lights or loud sounds — might be overwhelming to other animals.

That is why it’s so problematic when we try to understand animals’ experience by generalizing our own sensory experiences; it risks overlooking or mischaracterizing the distressing signs the animals may be displaying.

There are other reasons, too. Research has suggested that the popularity of Pixar Animation’s Finding Nemo movie may have spurred overfishing of reefs. Other researchers have cited how North American raccoons were imported to Japan as pets due to the popularity of the 1977 cartoon series Rascal Raccoon, which anthropomorphized the animals as harmless, cute and humorous — none of which is true, at least from the raccoons’ point of view. As a result of this pet craze, raccoons became an invasive species in Japan and damaged crops and fruits, as well as preying on native species. Researchers believe that it was partly due to the cartoon’s misrepresentation of raccoons’ nature as wild animals that caused the human-raccoon conflict in the first place.

Anthropomorphizing certain species creates another problem: It establishes a narrative suggesting that other species we care less about aren’t worth protecting — or in some cases, even need to be exterminated. This was the case with the imperial parrot, the flagship species of the Caribbean Island of Dominica. It got so much attention that Dominicans started to disregard the conservation efforts of its sister species, the red-necked parrot. What’s more, the red-necked parrot was portrayed as an antithesis to the imperial parrot — and researchers were concerned that such narrative could even lead to the culling of the parrot’s population.

Yet another drawback of anthropomorphizing one species over another is that we can forego conservation efforts for species that don’t necessarily win our heart for their cute demeanor.

In many cases we don’t even realize it when we anthropomorphize animals. For example, we interpret the upturned mouths of snakes, dolphins, and chimpanzees as smiling expressions, with dangerous consequences.

While some of this is harmless, it can also lead to subtle consequences that endanger both animals and humans. For example, tourists in destinations like Ubud, Bali, feed monkeys because they appear cute and remind them of human babies. As a result, the monkeys no longer fear humans. Problems arise when these monkeys turn aggressive and start, as one magazine recently wrote, “stealing” tourists’ personal belongings. (Even the way the news is written screams anthropomorphism because it assumes that a monkey understands the concept of “stealing.”)

Our motives are usually good, and understandable. Anthropomorphism helps us make sense of nonhuman behavior that might otherwise seem scary or confusing. In some cases it may even make us care about living beings we would otherwise ignore or even harm. But we should resist the temptation, because it creates more risks than benefits.

Promoting empathy toward animals, on the other hand, retains all the potential benefits of anthropomorphism without the dangers.

One way to cultivate empathy is to consider how animals would normally behave if they were in their natural state. For instance, if a wild dolphin or orca swims dozens of miles each day, imagine how it must feel for them to be confined in a pool — no matter how big the pool looks to us.

It’s of course very hard to understand animals’ experience when we don’t even know what the world looks like to them and how they perceive it. While biologists work to find this out, the least we can do is to resist the temptation to impose our own senses and feelings on life forms that are profoundly different from us. By avoiding the trap of anthropomorphism, we can make room for empathy built on the recognition that we really do not know what they’re going through.

As for the black seadevil, the anglerfish lived and eventually perished on its own terms, not ours — and that should be enough.

Previously in The Revelator:

What Can Psychology Offer Biodiversity Protection?

The post We Don’t Have to Anthropomorphize Animals to Care About Them appeared first on The Revelator.

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

Join the Transit For All PA campaign for sustainable transit funding to keep our State moving forward.

Image Source: Visit Philadelphia

CBS News: Major SEPTA cuts to hit Philadelphia in less than 3 weeks as lawmakers debate funding. Where do talks stand? – With the state budget over a month overdue and looming SEPTA cuts drifting closer, Philadelphians are still unsure what their transportation options will look like in the near future. SEPTA officials and Philly residents, including students preparing for school commutes, are waiting for a decision from Harrisburg. Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman indicated that while there has been some progress, there is still negotiating to be done. 

Image Source: WHYY

WHYY: SEPTA sets Aug. 14 deadline to ‘begin dismantling’ the transit system without new state funding – In a news release, SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer has announced August 14th as the absolute latest lawmakers have to supply funding before the agency begins its process of dismantling SEPTA services. Officials need 10 days to finalize schedules and update signage and information leading up to the August 24th “doomsday,” when many bus and rail routes will be reduced or eliminated. 

Image Source: BillyPenn

BillyPenn: Hundreds rally at City Hall as SEPTA service cuts draw nearer – In the face of impending SEPTA cuts, now only 16 days away, hundreds of local activists and Philadelphians gathered at City Hall to express urgency in the call for state funding. Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Philadelphia, acted as event host, urging attendees to contact representatives along with 10 other speakers. Concerned rally-goers spoke of a reality in which they’d have to pay for Ubers for work every day, and where the number of cars in Center City would drastically increase, causing major congestion.

Other Stories

Streetsblog USA: Zivarts: How ‘Week Without Driving’ Is Having An Impact

NBC10: ‘Time’s up’: Pa. Dems call for GOP lawmakers to approve mass transit funding

6abc: ‘We are left with no other choice’: SEPTA announces new service schedules if funding is not passed

NBC10: Amid ‘death spiral,’ SEPTA releases new schedules reflecting 20% service cuts

Philly Voice: Watch Pa. lawmakers debate SEPTA budget crisis in House Transportation Committee meeting

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Adding biochar to the soil not only creates better growing conditions for cotton, but also reduces nitrogen run-off by up to 87%. These findings from a new research paper add to a growing body of work that shows the triple benefits biochar can have on crops, soil health, and the wider environment.

Using biochar made from sugarcane bagasse, the researchers tested out the carbon-rich, pyrolized material in a field experiment in the Lower Mississippi Delta, where fields of cotton are a common sight. Cotton is an extremely resource-intensive crop, inhaling over 200 liters of water per kilo on average in this region. It also consumes a lot of fertilizer, with large amounts showered over the soil where it grows.

Accentuating the problem, cotton is often cultivated on sandy loam soil that has a weaker, more porous structure through which water—and fertilizer nutrients—easily flow.

These twin environmental challenges were the focus of the researchers’ experiment. Between 2020 and 2022, they applied three different treatments of biochar in varying quantities to rows of cotton, and compared them against an experimental plot where no biochar was applied. Over the course of the growing period, the researchers took random samples of the soil for analysis.

These samples held some interesting telltale clues. The soil where 20 Mg of biochar had been applied per hectare showed a significant 63% reduced concentration of nitrate, compared to the control site. The research team also measured samples for the volume of water they contained, and used soil probes on the research plots to determine the volume of run-off from the soil.

Their efforts revealed two intriguing things. Firstly, that the soil on biochar-treated plots retained more water than those without the soil amendment. This is because biochar creates a more stable, varied structure that inhibits the freeflow of water, and also provides more matter to absorb water, compared to sandy loam soils.

 

.IRPP_ruby , .IRPP_ruby .postImageUrl , .IRPP_ruby .centered-text-area {height: auto;position: relative;}.IRPP_ruby , .IRPP_ruby:hover , .IRPP_ruby:visited , .IRPP_ruby:active {border:0!important;}.IRPP_ruby .clearfix:after {content: "";display: table;clear: both;}.IRPP_ruby {display: block;transition: background-color 250ms;webkit-transition: background-color 250ms;width: 100%;opacity: 1;transition: opacity 250ms;webkit-transition: opacity 250ms;background-color: #eaeaea;}.IRPP_ruby:active , .IRPP_ruby:hover {opacity: 1;transition: opacity 250ms;webkit-transition: opacity 250ms;background-color: inherit;}.IRPP_ruby .postImageUrl {background-position: center;background-size: cover;float: left;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 31.59%;position: absolute;top: 0;bottom: 0;}.IRPP_ruby .centered-text-area {float: right;width: 65.65%;padding:0;margin:0;}.IRPP_ruby .centered-text {display: table;height: 130px;left: 0;top: 0;padding:0;margin:0;padding-top: 20px;padding-bottom: 20px;}.IRPP_ruby .IRPP_ruby-content {display: table-cell;margin: 0;padding: 0 74px 0 0px;position: relative;vertical-align: middle;width: 100%;}.IRPP_ruby .ctaText {border-bottom: 0 solid #fff;color: #0099cc;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;letter-spacing: normal;margin: 0;padding: 0;font-family:'Arial';}.IRPP_ruby .postTitle {color: #000000;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;letter-spacing: normal;margin: 0;padding: 0;font-family:'Arial';}.IRPP_ruby .ctaButton {background: url(https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts-pro/assets/images/next-arrow.png)no-repeat;background-color: #afb4b6;background-position: center;display: inline-block;height: 100%;width: 54px;margin-left: 10px;position: absolute;bottom:0;right: 0;top: 0;}.IRPP_ruby:after {content: "";display: block;clear: both;}Recommended Reading:The climate impact of cotton depends on how often you wash it and how long you wear it

 

Below about 15cm, the biochar’s stabilizing effect was reduced. But nevertheless its effect on topsoil seemed to provide a powerful knock-on benefit, because the run-off on biochar-treated plots contained strikingly lower concentrations of nitrates, the researchers found.

In fact, at soil depths of between 46cm and 81cm, biochar applications reduced nitrate losses through run-off by between 49 and 87%, and 42 and 102% during the fallow period of the cotton harvest, compared to the control.

The researchers also think that nitrate run-off was better-controlled under the treated cotton, because biochar increases the amount of soil organic carbon in the earth, which is a food source for millions of soil microorganisms. These microbes consume and fix nitrogen, too—so, as biochar increases, microorganisms fix more nitrogen, leaving less to slip into water and seep into the surroundings.

Now that the researchers have identified an effective, simple solution to some of cotton’s biggest challenges, what are the future plans for this work? The researchers say that they intend to scale up their experiments to the field level, and partner with farmers to evaluate the benefit of biochar on their lands.

They also hope to see whether biochar can deliver the same, or similar, benefits on fields of corn and soy.

Sharma et. al. “Biochar impact on soil properties and soil solution nutrient concentrations under cotton production.” Journal of Environmental Management. 2025.

Image: © Rytis Bernotas| Dreamstime.com

Our new report, Unfinished Business, examines the issue of methane leaks from Canada’s non-producing wells. The report’s author, Amanda Bryant, Senior Analyst at the Pembina Institute, answers questions about the environmental risks associated with...

“Reparations Now! Climate Justice Now!” Date: Saturday 23 August 2025 1200hrs – 2000hrs Venue: We are 336, Brixton Road, SW9 7AA (Nearest Station Brixton) Contact: Mel Mullings 07718 645817

As part of the Trade Union Year of Climate Action, this year’s RMT Reparations Conference 2025 will challenge us to connect reparative justice with global environmental equity – reflecting our commitment to confronting two urgent and interconnected global issues- aiming to inspire collective transformation.

As people of the world, our insights, lived experience, and contributions to the Reparations campaign greatly enrich our dialogue. We believe your presence at the conference would help connect global perspectives with local advocacy and inspire meaningful action.

The creation of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on African Reparations stands as a historic achievement in UK politics — an outcome driven by the strategic leadership and grassroots mobilisation of Black workers within the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). These individuals were more than participants; they were the architects of progress, pushing reparatory justice onto the national agenda through disciplined organising, coalition-building, and unwavering advocacy.

This moment underscores a deeper truth: reparations are not solely a matter of historical redress. They are a contemporary demand for racial equity, economic justice, and climate accountability. The APPG represents both the resilience of Black organising and the power of trade unionist activism in shaping transformative change.

Conference Objectives:

• To assess and advance reparations strategies within and beyond the trade union movement
• To explore the relationship between climate justice and reparations from a policy and grassroots perspective
• To amplify voices from impacted communities and build transnational solidarity
• To strengthen the coalition of legal, political, and social justice actors working toward reparative outcomes

The Conference will convene union members, community organisers, elected representatives, legal experts, and social justice organisations. We aim to generate strategic dialogue, expand networks, and foster collective action that centres reparations as a living and global justice issue.

Speakers are still confirming but we have an absolutely fantastic line up.  .

This is an open event and we’d love to have our sister TU’s involved with us. Thank you for your continued dedication to justice, community empowerment, and transformative leadership. We hope to welcome you in solidarity.

For further details or to express your interest, contact Mel Mullings (Conference Lead Organiser) at melbmullingscomms@gmail.com or +44 7718 645817.

FULL POSTER HERE

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The post “Reparations Now! Climate Justice Now!” first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

Headline News:

• “Massive, 18-Mile-Long Patagonia Glacier Experiencing Rapid Ice Loss For First Time” • What was once thought the most stable glacier in Patagonia is undergoing ice loss at rates far greater than previously thought, a study shows. The glacier, measuring about 18.6 miles long, has retreated nearly half a mile in some areas over the past few years. [ABC News]

Glaciar Perito Moreno (Chrysanthi Ha, Unsplash)

• “Vestas Wins 274-MW Turbine Order In Canada” • Vestas has secured a 274-MW order from EDF power solutions North America for the Madawaska wind project in Quebec, Canada. The deal covers the supply of 25 V162-6.0MW and 20 V162-6.2MW EnVentus turbines, alongside a 10-year Active Output Management 5000 service agreement. [reNews]
• “Gresham Hits 1-GW Milestone For UK BESS” • Gresham House Energy Storage Fund has reached 1 GW of operational battery energy storage capacity in the UK. Gresham said it has delivered 282 MW and 770 MWh of operational assets since the 2024 interim results, completing construction of its 1,072-MW, 1,701-MWh portfolio. [reNews]
• “Make America Gaslit Again” • Trump & Cohort are trying to shut down as much renewable energy as possible. And they are doing so as rapidly as possible. Will the surviving wind and solar power be enough? Probably not. It would probably not be enough in any event, because demand is rising rapidly. We should prepare because the numbers don’t add up. [CleanTechnica]
• “Trump’s Attack On Wind, Solar Cuts Deeper Than Industry Expected” • President Donald Trump is escalating his attacks on wind and solar power, with a rapid-fire campaign that exceeds the industries’ worst fears. In the past few weeks, the Trump administration instituted permitting reviews that threaten US wind and solar developments. [Yahoo Finance]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

It was a jolt to U.S. politics when Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor: a Muslim democratic socialist who seemed likely to rule the nation’s flagship city. Progressives of all stripes cheered the victory of a people-powered, pro-Palestinian campaign rooted in an explicitly working-class platform.

While the significance of the victory shouldn’t be minimized, is the celebration premature? The New York oligarchy sustained a blow, but it’s likely the election has merely awakened them to the real danger. Though they spent millions of dollars against him in the primary, the capitalist oligarchy will not quietly allow Mamdani to enact his program at their expense.

Assuming Mamdani survives the frenzied slander to win the general election, the survival of his campaign platform will remain questionable—freezing rents, raising wages, free transit, free childcare, city-run grocery stores, taxing the rich, etc.

Attempts to implement this platform will further radicalize the New York elite against him and unleash a barrage of serious obstacles to destroy his mayorship.

To overcome these obstacles—both legal and illegal—Mamdani will have to rely on ongoing mobilization and other forms of action—both legal and illegal—from his working-class base, rather than the methods typical of a Democratic Party politician.

Some early warning signs suggest Mamdani is likely to choose the methods of the latter, but time will tell. Zohran’s post victory speech did not thank or even mention the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the backbone of his volunteer base and the organization he has a long history with. Could this imply a drift to the right? Early evidence of AOC’s rightward drift was her distancing herself from DSA.

During his victory speech Mamdani did mention a couple of Democratic Party politicians and said, ominously, that his campaign was “… a model for the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working people with no apology.”

A social movement, class-struggle approach to governing … is necessary to outflank the Democrats dying to see [Mamdani] fail.

Many powerful Democrats have congratulated him, but few have endorsed him for the general election. Some may be holding out for concessions on Mamdani’s program in return for endorsement. Many may hope for a rerun of the India Walton election in Buffalo, where she won the primary but was undermined by the Democrats and lost the general election.

Mamdani is better situated to win the general election than Walton was. If he does become mayor, Democrats will keep insisting that he pare back his campaign platform. They’ll demand he give assurances to Wall Street and big business; that he not upset the balance of political and economic power in the city; that he soften his stance on police, that he completely abandon the DSA, etc, etc.

A social movement, class-struggle approach to governing—mobilizing and being accountable to those who put Mamdani in power—is necessary to outflank the Democrats dying to see him fail.

How the U.S. ruling class will respond to a Mayor Mamdani

If Mamdani does become mayor, it’s unclear if he’ll actually be allowed to govern. Given the enormous stakes—hundreds of billions of dollars—a political coup of some kind (before or after he takes power) is not outside the realm of possibilities, not to mention the threats to his personal safety that have already begun but promise to worsen.

The state of U.S. capitalism in 2025 cannot easily tolerate a powerful example of a successful working-class platform, since for 45 years both parties have been in general agreement that every progressive element of the New Deal should be overturned. Thus  the U.S. ruling class will desperately seek to thwart Mamdani’s plans before his program gets exported to other cities.

Already the city’s own ruling class is organizing to prevent his victory in the general election. The New York Times discussed how the super rich appear to be coalescing behind the disgraced current Mayor, Eric Adams.

The article quotes Scott Rechler who is described as “one of the city’s biggest landlords.” Rechler denounced Mamdani’s campaign because New York is “the capital of capitalism.” Rechler’s comment is more than symbolic. It’s a call to action loaded with cash and other forms of power.

The U.S. ruling class will desperately seek to thwart Mamdani’s plans before his program gets exported to other cities.

Donald Trump, for example, has many investments in the city that prompted him to call Zohran a “communist lunatic” after the primary victory. Trump’s comment, while ridiculous, reminds us that resources from the federal government are likely to be deployed on some level to undermine Mamdani.

For example Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan responded to Mamdani’s pro-immigration approach by saying “President Trump made it clear we’re going to hammer—we’re going to double and triple down on sanctuary cities. So, what you see in New York City today, double it … game on we’re coming.” Trump then threatened to arrest Mamdani if he interfered with federal immigration officers.

Because Trump has been “successful” in threatening universities and states with the withholding of federal funding, it seems inevitable that he will use this approach against Mamdani, especially since New York city is budgeted to use $7.4 billion in federal funds next year.

The city is also dependent on state grants, and the governor, a Democrat, has already been clear that she does not support Mamdani’s program. She has also made clear that she will do her best to oppose his plans to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Another possible attack may come from Wall Street, who may use their control of credit markets to undermine a Mamdani government, just as they did in 1975 when New York was pushed into “bankruptcy” by the big banks, who used their power to degrade New York’s credit rating and push the city down the path of austerity. Credit agencies such as Moody’s could choose to downgrade New York bonds, which could scare away creditors and raise borrowing costs.

Nothing should be ruled out, from endless lawsuits to the NYPD organizing “work slowdowns” that aim to create chaos to other forms of political and economic sabotage.

The NYPD made life miserable for former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and will likely be even more aggressive against Mamdani. If the police and super-rich succeed in sowing some chaos, it’s possible the governor might intervene “in the name of law and order” to legally oust the mayor.

This may seem alarmist, but when you really grab the tiger’s tale the beast lashes out. An explosive backlash from the ruling class has only just begun, and without a real plan to tame the cat, Mamdani and his base is certain to get badly mauled.

The only way Mamdani can avoid such a showdown with the ruling class is if he concedes to most of their demands, i.e., if he betrays the platform he ran on.

But if he actually stays true to fighting for his platform, he’ll need to go far beyond Democratic Party norms and organize effectively and militantly with the New York working class, including the various unions that have endorsed Mamdani, including the New York City labor council. The inevitable lesson will be that the Democratic Party is not a vehicle for real social change, but an obstacle.

Overcoming the oligarchy

Already there are activists, both in DSA and outside of it, who realize that voting for Mamdani won’t be enough to get his program implemented. Class struggle of various sorts—such as work stoppages, rent strikes, mass demonstrations—will be necessary to overcome ruling-class resistance.

The campaign is the time to persuade people to get ready for these fights. The Left needs to make an explicit case for struggle among those who already support Mamdani, including among the thousands who have put in time to get him elected. Those who are already most committed to a Mamdani victory are potentially the most coherent force to agitate for struggle beyond November 4.

The broader working class of New York could well be energized and even radicalized by the oligarchy’s reaction against Mamdani. A rising sense of anger is likely to permeate sections of Mamdani’s supporters as they watch the increasingly hysterical attacks on him and his platform. The Left, whether they are activists in the Mamdani campaign or not, needs to get ready to help the class turn that energy into collective action, into a movement.

Those who are already most committed to a Mamdani victory are potentially the most coherent force to agitate for struggle beyond November 4.

Such a movement also needs to develop political independence—the ability to transition from protecting Mamdani’s platform from the rich to pressuring him to follow through on his promises. Without such a counterweight, the pressure Mamdani will get from the rich could easily make him crumble.

If the course of events produces such a movement, the base could organically deepen his platform, bringing new issues to the forefront that they demand he act on, since a working class appetite has historically developed once it’s allowed to eat.

All of this, however, hinges on Mamdani’s willingness to actually fight New York’s ruling class, many of which are powerful members of the Democratic Party Mamdani currently seeks to win over.

To counter the influence of the ruling class, the Left and labor groups supporting Mamdani now will need to maintain their organizing post-election, to keep him focused on the program that won him their support.

Celebrity politicians versus class-struggle politics

Mamdani is a skillful politician with Obama-level charisma, but is he a real fighter?

We’ll see soon enough.

Will the organizations backing Mamdani push him to fight harder and better? We’ll know very soon.

What’s certain is that if a rent freeze is implemented the powerful New York landlords will do more than cry and go home; they will take action to destroy the Mamdani administration.

If Mamdani follows his platform around public safety, the NYPD will do more than sulk; they will be even more vicious than when they undermined the Bill de Blasio mayorship. They will be let off the leash.

If Mamdani’s tax plans are pursued the New York ruling class will do more than publicly slander him. And especially if he actually pursues plans to raise the city’s minimum wage to $30 an hour.

If he continues to speak out against the genocide in Gaza, AIPAC will continue to use their wealth and influence against him.

Zohran Mamdani speaks at the Resist Fascism rally last October in Bryant Park. Image by Bingjiefu He

Political enemies act predictably, which is why Mamdani and his base—within DSA and beyond—must prepare now for a real fight where their only real allies will be the working class and some radicalized sections of the middle class.

There are few good modern examples on how to do this in city government. The best is probably Kshama Sawant, who fought effectively on the Seattle city council against Amazon and the rest of the Seattle ruling class to win real victories for working class people.

Sawant was despised by Democrat and Republican alike, forcing her to rely on militant organizing to achieve her wins. Given that she had no real allies on city council, she and her socialist organization fought far above their weight-class by mobilizing the working class, a process she described well recently on the Bad Faith podcast.

Mamdani talks well about the struggles of NYC’s working class, but he must match their urgency with a campaign serious enough to overcome the resistance of the capitalist elite.

There is no electoral path to socialism—or even social democracy—without unleashing a powerful social movement. If Mamdani wages a real fight against New York’s establishment, the national working class will rally in support.

But if he crumbles under the pressure, lessons must be learned so that a similar path isn’t pursued in the future. In this way the working class can develop the political independence necessary to win the kind of platform it desperately needs.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: Bingjiefu He; modified by Tempest.

The post Will Mamdani be allowed to govern NYC? appeared first on Tempest.

We all see the dynamic impact AI and the grid are having on each other. To stay ahead of the rapid evolution, GridFWD 2025 brings you “AI and the Grid: The rising tide of applications and demands.” This event will host dozens of industry luminaries, sessions with a panoramic view of AI and the grid, discussion groups, case studies and much more. You’ll hear the latest data center breakthroughs and get to see AI applications that are already making an impact today. Join leaders from leading AI companies, utilities, tech innovators and other industry experts this October 6-8 in stunning Monterey, CA.

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The post GridFWD 2025 first appeared on NW Energy Coalition.